A significant document, being the first government instruction manual for the completing of accounts folllowing the great changes ushered in by the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. 30pp., 8vo. Stitched and unbound. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with vertical closed tear to foot of first leaf. Embossed seal on red paper of the Poor Law Commission of England and Wales on front page, together with red 'Office Copy' stamp. The word 'Brixworth' has been added in manuscript on the first page, with 'Old or Wold' above it.

The Poor Law Commission for England and Wales, London. Old or Wold Parish, Brixworth Union, Northamptonshire. Dating from between 1835 and 1840.

£5,000.00

30 documents, 20 printed and 10 in manuscript. In good overall condition, on aged paper, with slight wear to some items. A significant and interesting collection, from the papers of Rev. Richard Harington (1800-1853, later Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford), Guardian of the Poor in the Parish of Old or Wold, Brixworth Union, Northamptonshire.

7pp., folio. An unbound and unopened half-sheet. Facsimile of Chadwick's signature at end. An interesting document, in twenty-six numbered sections, laying out the duties of the parish officers with regard auditing of the quarterly Poor Rates accounts.

1p., 4to. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper, with slight damage to corners caused by removal from album. For the context of the letter, see Oastler's entry in the Oxford DNB, which explains that he was nearing the end of a three and a half year sentence at the Fleet Prison, for 'debts accumulated during his stewardship at Fixby', the charge being a 'Pretext', his 'campaign against the new poor law' having proved 'incendiary'. The letter begins: 'Maria! | This comes from thy own Papa, to wish thee a Happy new Year.

14 + [2] pp., 12mo. Disbound without covers. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. 'Delivered under the auspices of the Anti-Poverty Society at the Cooper Institute, New York, on Sunday, March 3, 1889, for the benefit of the Street-Car Drivers and Conductors out of employment through the late strike.' Scarce: the only copy on COPAC in Oxford.

54pp., 12mo. Disbound without covers. In good condition, on aged paper. Dedication: 'To | The Poor of England, | This Pamphlet is dedicated | By ONE | Who would hasten the coming of the Day | When we shall not [last word underlined] have them | With us.' He concludes with 'one word' to those who think that 'what we believe in as possible is a splendid Utopia that can never exist, a pleasant dream that shall never be realised': 'Have it so, if you please.

Printed on one side of a 31.5 x 19.5 cm piece of Britannia laid paper. A fragile piece of ephemera, aged and with heavy wear to extremities. The text is complete, except for loss to the first letter ('P') of the first word ('Poor') on the top line. Text reads: 'Poor Rates. | THE GUARDIANS who were appointed a Committee to examine the Receipts of the Collectors, having compared a great number of Receipts with the Original Rate Book, have the satisfaction to inform the Inhabitants that they are fully satisfied with Messrs.

40pp., 12mo. Stitched and unbound. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, with slight damage to the fore-edge of the findal leaf. The title continues: 'and | An Attempt to develope [sic] the connexion (if any) between the changes observed and the variations occuring during the same period in the prices of the most necessary articles of food.'

Both items with shelfmarks, stamps and labels of the Board of Education Reference Library, London. ONE: 'University of London Tutorial Classes for Working People | Report of the University of London Joint Committee for the Promotion of the Higher Education of Working People on the Work of the Four Years 1909-1913'. February 1914. 23 + [1]pp., 4to. Stitched. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. The only copies on COPAC and OCLC WorldCat at the British Library and King's College London. TWO: 'University of London.

Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be Printed, 7 August 1896. Printed by Eyre and Spottiswoode, Printers to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty.

£100.00

19 + [1]pp., crown 8vo. Stitched. In good condition, lightly-aged and with slight staining at head of back cover. With stamps and shelfmarks of the Education Department Library. Scarce: no copies (other than on microfilm) on either OCLC WorldCat or COPAC.

15pp., 12mo. Stitched. In good condition, on lightly aged paper. With shelfmark and stamp of the Education Department Library. Signed beneath title on front cover: 'J. C. Bloomfield'. Dedication to 'B. Samuelson, Esq., M.P., F.R.S.' on p.3. Bloomfield was the co-founder of Belleek Pottery. Scarce.

47pp, 4to. On aged and brittle paper, archivally repaired and bound in sturdy modern blue buckram binding by the Ministry of Education Reference Library (whose stamps and labels the volume carries), with white typed label on front board. Binding in very good condition. A detailed report, with numerous tables, and eighteen case studies including financial and other information including 'Teacher's report' and 'Investigator's report'. Scarce: no copies on COPAC or (other than eBooks) on OCLC WorldCat.

'Reprinted from the Western Daily Mercury, 6th December 1871.' Plymouth: Western Daily Mercury Offices, Frankfort Street.

£120.00

10pp., 12mo. Stitched and unbound. In fair condition, on aged and worn paper. In small type. Scarce: no copy traced. (The Bodleian holds seven of the Society's reports, from the sixteenth (1884) to the twenty-second (1892), but none so early as this one.)

[East Langton, Leicestershire.] 'Made this 26th. Day of April 1841. After the Note of Sixpence in the Pound'. Continued to 18 July 1843.

£280.00

99pp., landscape 8vo. In heavily-worn original black-cloth quarter-binding, with remains of marbled paper on boards. The volume consists of ten quarterly sections, each signed by the churchwarden and overseers, and signed off by two justices of the peace. The first assessment (26 April 1841) records 43 occupiers, and the last (18 July 1843) 55. Each opening is a complete printed form, with 16 columns covering the two pages. In the following example of an entry, the manuscript is given in square brackets: No.

Nathaniel Tate, one of the overseers of the Parish of Alnwick, Northumberland [Ann Allison; Darlington Workhouse, County Durham]

Publication details:

Alnwick. 10 December 1810.

£56.00

1p., 8vo. On a bifolium. Addressed, with postmark, on the reverse of the second leaf: 'To the Overseers of the Parish of Darlington - | Durham'. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper, with two spike holes. The document reads: 'Gentn. | A Single Woman of the Name of Ann Allison, belonging to this Parish is gone to inhabit in your Parish - you will therefore have the goodness to pay her 2/6 pr. Week - from the 28th. Inst.

[Burr, Hoar & Burr, attornies, Maidstone, Kent.] Undated, but covering the period April 1817 to July 1821.

£220.00

3pp., folio. Bifolium. Addressed on reverse of second leaf to 'Mr. Bottle | Overseer | Leeds', with Maidstone postmark, and docketted 'Burr's Bill | £24 14s 8d'. In good condition, on lightly aged and creased paper. Headed 'The Overseers of the Poor of Leeds'. Closely and neatly written, with the forty itemised entries going into unusual detail. The first entry, for 6s 8d, reads: '[April 1817] Att[endin]g. you on Stonham's Son in law hav[in]g. applied to a Magistrate for an Order for relief of his Grandchildren & aftwds upon the Magistrate with you & him & advis[in]g.

2pp., 4to. On first leaf of a bifolium, with reverse of second leaf addressed (with postmarks) to 'The Relieving Officers | Basingstoke Union | Hants'. In good condition, on aged paper. The document carries the signature of 'Wm.

1p., 12mo. In good condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. He has just 'received notice that the Mansfield meeting will be held on Thursday at 12 o'clock - & the Sutton meeting on Saturday at One O'clock.' He continues: 'If you intend to insert any of my sayings of last Monday, I should feel obliged by a sight of the proof, if consistent with your official regulations'.

Sir Thomas Dyke Acland (1787-1871), successively Conservative Member of Parliament for Devonshire and North Devon

Publication details:

From the Waterloo Hotel, on his crested letterhead. 10 June 1863.

£56.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium with mourning border. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with slight traces of glue from mount along one edge. A hurried letter, illegible at points. 'You will see the name of yr. respectable at the end of the enclosed Petition from My Own Hand. She has no right to refer to me for any further knowledge of herself and her husband, or his position of art - than that of my having understood him to be an artist in a state of much distress, labouring under loss or decay of sight, & that I for some years I might almost , I gave him occasional relief.

Surprisingly little appears to have been written about the public baths at 12 Nicolson Square, Edinburgh; with no references to it on the Scottish Archives Network. There is however an informative reference to the subject in Francis H. Groome's 'Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland' (1884): 'Good public baths, of various kinds and various extent, for the upper and the middle classes, are in several parts both of the city and its environs. Public baths for the working classes were long a desideratum, though earnestly desired by many of the working classes themselves.

[British Act of Parliament: 'An Act for Relief of Poor Prisoners for Debt or Damages', 22 November 1695]

Publication details:

London: Printed by Charles Bill, and the Executrix of Thomas Newcomb, deceas'd, Printers to the Kings most Excellent Majesty. 1695.

£180.00

[1] + 14pp., 8vo, with the text paginated 349-359. Disbound. Good, on aged paper. At the head of the title, in a contemporary hand: 'Relief of poor prisoners'. The title carries the royal crest, and reads in full: 'Anno Regni Gulielmi II. Regis Angliae, Scotiae, Franciae & Hiberniae, Septimo & Octavo. | At the Parliament begun at Westminster the Two and twentieth Day of November, Anno Dom. 1695.

Olive Mackirdy [née Olive Christian Malvery] (1877-1914), Anglo-Indian journalist and philanthropist, who raised money for two shelters for homeless women in London

Publication details:

Place and date not stated (but written after her marriage in 1904).

£120.00

2pp., 12mo. The final leaf of the letter only. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. A poignant letter, given its author's early death. Regarding 'the Shelter' Mackirdy writes that 'Lady Brassey the Duchess of St Albans Lady Radnor & others have been giving big dinner parties etc for me & I only go in order to meet people who will help with the Shelter. I am not very strong and have such heavy work that now I find I simply cannot indulge my own tastes & enjoy my firends if I am going to do definite work.

28 + [1] pp., 8vo. In fair condition, on aged and lightly-worn paper. P. 1 has the drophead title: 'STRAND UNION WORKHOUSE. | RETURN to an Order of the Honourable The House of Commons, | dated 25 June 1866; - for, | COPY "of the REPORT made by R. B. Crane, Esquire, Poor Law Inspector, to the Poor Law Board, after an Inquiry held by him on the 4th and 6th June 1866, into certain Allegations made by Matilda Beeton, in reference to the Treatment of the Sick in the Strand Union Workhouse." | Poor Law Board, 25 June 1866.

1p., 12mo. In small type. On aged and creased paper. Signed in type: 'Beggar and Flames! | Gentlemen, | If I am not your Bum Bailiffe, [sic] | For any dirty work, | WM. BUSTER, JUNR.' The circumstances surrounding this spoof are unclear. It begins: 'In fact, I feel it a duty devolving upon me, to return you my sincere thanks for the honour you have done me, in electing me one of your Guardians.' The next paragraph concerns 'the slanderous assertion, which certain persons have industriously circulated, detractive of this honour, in fact, that I am the nominee of my own workman'.

[The Hampton Training Home for boys [Hampton Home]; George Thom; Joseph Merry and his wife Rachel Merry (sister of Annie Macpherson [Annie Parlane Macpherson]); Home of Industry; Canadian emigration]

Publication details:

Circa 1870.

£280.00

Landscape photograph, 19.5 x 14.5 cm, laid down on a piece of thin card cut from an album, 18 x 21 cm. Around sixty boys are posed in four rows in front of a grand house, with two masters to the right and two to the left, and with a fifth in the centre of the group. The group are surprisingly fat-faced, posing sulkily in jackets, with some waistcoats and tam o'shanters. Five more boys look out of a downstairs window, three from an upstairs window, and one peeks out from behind the front door.

2pp., 12mo. 25 lines. Fair, on aged paper, with a few ink spots caused by clumsy blotting. He has 'gone through the papers referring to the case' in which Wyld is 'kindly interested', and finds 'that the decision of the Board is in accordance with its uniform rule in similiar cases. | Mr. Mayall received his appointment as Relieving Officer on the express stipulation that he should reside in Bodmin'. Mayall's 'removal would have been objected to by this Board without any adverse representation from Guardians of the District'.